Rudolf Steiner Archive & e.Lib Document

The Gospel of St. John

The hierarchies of our solar system and the kingdoms of the earth.

Schmidt Number: S-2032

On-line since: 10th September, 2002

LECTURE IV

Our point of departure for yesterday's considerations was the fact
that an altered state of consciousness is experienced by man in his
everyday life, inasmuch as his physical and etheric bodies remain in
bed, in the interval between falling asleep and awakening, while his
astral body and Ego are away. At the same time we pointed out that the
physical and etheric bodies as they remain in bed, could not subsist
did not a divine spiritual astrality and a divine spiritual Ego enter
the sleeper. Thus, these alternating conditions of everyday human life
consist in the fact that in the evening, when he falls asleep, the
human being quits his etheric and physical bodies, with his Ego and
astral body; these are replaced by divine spiritual astral and
Ego-beings which enter his physical and etheric bodies. During the day
man himself fills and provides for his physical and etheric bodies,
with his astral body and Ego. That was one of the facts which headed
yesterday's considerations. The other fact was our increased knowledge
resulting from a comprehensive survey of our whole human evolution
through the former incarnations of our Earth  Saturn, Sun, and
Moon. We also discussed certain details arising out of the general
survey and found that with regard to the progress of our planet, a
division occurred since the Moon evolution. Certain beings who
required lower, inferior substances for their progress separated off,
as it were, with the old Moon, while other beings of a higher, more
spiritual nature, also detached themselves, as an older form of Sun
evolution. We saw further how the two parts afterwards re-united, how
they passed through a state of cosmic Devachan or Pralaya, and then
reached Earth evolution proper. Here there was, to begin with, a
repetition of the former separation of the Sun. For a time we have the
Earth-plus-Moon as a coarser, denser body, and the Sun with its
higher, sublimer beings, as a separate, finer body. We have seen that,
had the Earth remained united with the lunar substances, it must have
become a petrified, desert sphere, and all life upon it must have died
out, or rather become mummified. Then came a time when the Moon, with
all that it now harbours, was perforce ejected from Earth evolution.
The immediate result was a rejuvenating process in the evolving human
being.

We have seen that the sublime beings evolving on the Sun were unable
to work upon the human substances and beings before the separation of
the Moon; afterwards they were able to exercise a rejuvenating
influence upon them, so that, strictly speaking, the evolution of the
human race dates back from the separation of the Moon from the Earth.
This separation of the Moon is a moment of the very greatest
importance for the whole of evolution, and we shall examine it more
closely today. Before doing so, however, let me draw attention to the
manner in which the two starting-points of yesterday's considerations
coincide.

Man, as we see him in everyday life, is a being consisting of a
physical, an etheric, an astral body and an Ego. When we behold him
asleep during the night, as he lies in bed as far as his physical and
etheric bodies are concerned, we can, if gifted with clairvoyant
consciousness, watch how higher beings enter into the physical and
etheric bodies. Who are these beings? They are precisely those of whom
we have said that their scene of activity is, generally speaking, on
the Sun. There is nothing impossible in this. Unless someone imagines
everything spiritual in physical form and applies physical standards
to the idea of spiritual beings, he will not ask how solar spirits
dwelling on the Sun can enter a physical and etheric body during the
night. The same conditions of space do not apply equally to beings in
the physical world and to beings so exalted that they dwell on the
Sun. Such beings may very well live on the Sun and yet send their
forces into the human physical body during the night. So that we may
say: By day man is awake, that is, he inhabits his physical and
etheric bodies; by night he sleeps, that is, he is outside his
physical and etheric bodies. The Gods or other beings from the spheres
beyond the Earth watch over man's physical and etheric bodies during
the night. Though this phraseology is more or less symbolical, it is
nevertheless exact. We know, therefore, whence the beings come, who
enter into our physical and etheric bodies during the night. Our two
starting-points, then, coincide here. But we shall see immediately
that these beings are of importance not only as regards man's life by
night, but that they gradually gain in significance for his life by
day. In the first place, however, in order to understand clearly the
full importance of the Moon's exit from Earth evolution, we must
consider some other matters. Today let us consider the other beings
around us and enquire into the manner of their origin.

When we look back to the Saturn period we may say that this body was
composed solely of human beings. There was no animal, no vegetable, no
mineral kingdom on that body. The whole Saturn sphere was nothing but
human forms in embryonic state  much as a blackberry consists of
a number of single little berries. And all the beings who belonged to
Saturn surrounded this sphere and acted upon it from the environing
space. And now let us ask whence that power came which provided the
first beginning of the human physical body on Saturn. In a certain
sense we may say that it came from two sides. In the first place, high
spiritual beings bearing the name of ‘Thrones’, in the sense of
Christian esotericism, poured out their substance and consummated a
great sacrifice on old Saturn. Human thought, even human seership,
hardly dare presume to peer into the sublime evolution through which
the Thrones must have passed before they were able to sacrifice a part
of themselves to form the first beginning of the human physical body.
Let us try to understand a little what is meant by such a sacrifice.

When we consider the being best known to us today, man, we say: Man,
as he is, demands certain things of the world and gives certain
things to the world. Goethe has summed this up in the words: ‘Human
life runs its course in the metamorphosis between giving and taking.’
Man derives more than physical sustenance from the outer world; his
intellect, too, must draw nourishment from it. Thus he provides for
his growth and obtains what he requires for his own development. On
the other hand, he develops the capacity to requite what he receives,
with matured ideas, feelings, and finally with love. By taking from
the world on one side and giving back on the other, his abilities are
increasingly heightened; he becomes a reasonable and intellectual
human being; he can develop ideas which can be offered up for the
common welfare of humanity. He develops feelings and emotions which
become transmuted into love; and when he brings these feelings and
emotions as an offering to his fellow human beings, the life of the
latter becomes quickened thereby. We need only recall the quickening
effect of love. Whoever is really able to pour forth love on is fellow
creatures can quicken, comfort, and elevate them by his love alone.
Man has therefore the ability to sacrifice something. But to whatever
heights our capacity for sacrifice may rise, our power is meagre when
compared with that of the Thrones. Evolution, however, consists in
the acquisition of an increasing capacity for sacrifice, until a being
is finally capable of offering up his own substance and being; indeed,
of feeling it to be his highest bliss when he gives forth what he has
developed as his own substance. Such sublime beings do indeed exist,
who rise to a higher level of existence by offering up their own
substance. The materialist will of course here again say: ‘If beings
are so advanced that they can sacrifice their own substance, how can
they rise to a higher stage? If they offer up themselves, there is
nothing left of them!’ Thus the materialist, for he cannot understand
that there is a spiritual existence, and that a being is preserved
even if he gives forth all that he has gradually taken to himself. On
Saturn the Thrones had reached a stage at which they could pour out
the substance which they had acquired in the course of their foregoing
evolution. Through this act they rose to a higher stage of evolution.
That which issued from the Thrones, as the thread which the spider
spins from its body to weave its web, was the groundwork for the
formation of the physical human body. Then came other beings, not so
high in rank as the Thrones, whom we call Spirits of Personality or
Archai, in the sense of Christian esotericism. The Spirits of
Personality now took in hand, as it were, the substance that issued
from the Thrones. The collaboration of these two hierarchies produced
the first beginning of the physical human body, which was as then
elaborated through long periods of time. Then, as we said yesterday,
there ensued universal night or cosmic Devachan which was followed by
the second incarnation of the Earth as ‘Sun’. The human beings again
came forth and other spiritual beings appeared on the scene. These
were the Fire Spirits or Archangels, in the sense of Christian
esotericism, and the Spirits of Wisdom or Kyriotetes. These now were
most concerned in further developing what reappeared as the physical
human body. It was now the turn of the Kyriotetes (Dominions or
Spirits of Wisdom) to sacrifice their substance, and what we know as
the etheric body flowed from them into the human physical body. The
etheric body was elaborated by the Spirits of Personality together
with the Fire Spirits or Archangels, and as a result man developed to
a being of the value of a plant. We may say that on Saturn man had the
value and the existence of a mineral, inasmuch as he had no more than
a physical body, as our minerals today. On the Sun man rose to the
level of a plant, for he possessed both physical and etheric bodies.
An event now took place the idea of which must occupy a foremost place
in our minds if we wish to understand evolution in its entirety.

In speaking of this event, I always like to compare it with an event
of everyday life, when children in school, having failed to attain the
required standard, miss their promotion, to the grief and annoyance of
the parents, and are left to repeat the same class. Something of the
kind exists also in the Cosmos. Certain beings fail to reach the goal
of their cosmic evolutionary stage and remain behind. Some of the
Spirits of Personality who should have reached the goal due on Saturn,
remained behind; they had neglected to do all that was necessary to
raise man to the value of a mineral and to bring him to the
appropriate perfection at this stage. Now in what way was it possible
for these Spirits of Personality who had fallen behind on Saturn to
work during the Sun evolution? They could not create a being such as
man was due to become on the Sun, with both physical and etheric
bodies. For this purpose Archangels were necessary. Those Spirits of
Personality could create no more on the Sun than formerly on Saturn: a
physical germ of the value of a mineral. Hence there arose during the
Sun period, through their influence, beings of a lower grade, which
formed a kingdom inferior to the human kingdom; these were the
ancestors of our present animals. On the Sun, therefore, our human
kingdom had advanced to the plant stage, while the animal kingdom was
on the level of the mineral. In this way the first beginning of our
animal kingdom arose in addition to the human kingdom.

We ask therefore: which of all the beings that surround us can look
back upon the longest evolution? Who is the first born of our
creation? Man! All the other beings have arisen because the
evolutionary forces bound up with human existence kept back the embryo
which might have become man at a certain stage, and allowed it to grow
into a lower being at a later stage. Had the laggard Spirits of
Personality performed their task on Saturn, and not on the Sun, there
would have been no animal kingdom. In a similar way, the following
events occurred on the Moon. (I need only touch upon them now.) Man's
development progressed inasmuch as he received his astral body from
other beings, the Spirits of Motion (Christian Dynamis). Man thereby
rose to the value of an animal during the Moon period. But the beings
who had arisen as a second (mineral) kingdom during the Sun period now
mostly attained the plant value on the Moon. These were the precursors
of our present animals. To these were added, once more by the agency
of the spiritual beings who had fallen behind in the manner indicated,
the creations which now form our vegetable kingdom. On the Sun there
had been no vegetable kingdom but only a human and an animal kingdom.
The vegetable kingdom appeared for the first time on the Moon; but a
mineral kingdom, a solid earth from which all things grow, did not yet
exist. In this manner the kingdoms evolved by degrees. The highest of
these, the human kingdom, was first to evolve. The animal kingdom is
something in the nature of an outcast from the human kingdom  a
failure to reach the highest level; and what remained still further
behind, became our present vegetable kingdom.

When the evolution of the old Moon was completed, Earth evolution
began, and we have already described how Sun and Moon separated from
the Earth. The germ of the earlier kingdoms, both animal and plant,
reappeared on the Earth, and finally (while the Moon and its substance
still formed part of the Earth) the mineral kingdom appeared in
addition. It was precisely owing to the mineral kingdom and the solid
foundation it provided, that the Earth became hardened, parched, and
waste, in the manner described. For the mineral kingdom by which we
are now surrounded is nothing but the cast-off element of the other,
higher kingdoms. As I have pointed out before, you need only consider
thoughtfully what is recognized by the science of the day. You will
then realize how the mineral kingdom was segregated from the other
kingdoms. Remember that coal, a mineral substance, is extracted from
the earth. What was coal ages ago? Trees that once grew on the earth,
plants that once perished and became stony masses, minerals. What is
now dug out in the form of coal was once a conglomerate of plants.
Coal is a product that was segregated; originally there were plants
there instead of coal. In the same way you will realize that
everything else which forms the solid groundwork of our Earth has been
segregated from the higher kingdoms. Think how certain of our present
mineral products are excretions of certain animals, such as the shells
of snails and other mollusks. Originally no minerals whatever existed;
they were segregated in the course of time. The mineral kingdom
appeared for the first time upon our Earth, and the reason of its
formation was that there were still certain beings present who worked
upon the Earth in the same way as they had worked upon Saturn. In
fact, the existence of the mineral kingdom is due to the activity of
the Spirits of Personality; and such beings are active on all higher
stages. If, however, evolution had continued in this way, there would
have been so many mineral deposits, so many processes of hardening and
densification, that the Earth would have gradually become a desert
waste.

We have now reached an important point in the evolution of our Earth.
We picture to ourselves how the Sun has left the Earth with the finest
substances and the beings who are now the spiritual inhabitants of the
Sun. We behold the growing desolation of the Earth and see how its
mineral crust becomes increasingly dense and how all forms (including
the human forms) wither away. Even at that time a certain alternation
took place in the conditions of human life. An illustration taken from
the growth of the plant will show what occurred at that time.

Springing from the tiny seed, the plant bursts forth in spring,
unfolds to blossom and fruit and withers away again in autumn. All
that delights the eye in spring and summer disappears in autumn, and,
outwardly in the physical world, only an insignificant remnant is
left. But if you believed that during winter nothing of the true being
of the plant were present, or that the true being must be sought in
the physical seed alone, you would have little idea of the plant. To
be sure, in its present form of existence, the plant consists of a
physical and an etheric body; but for clairvoyant vision, its upper
part is surrounded by an astral being, as by a border. This astral
being is enlivened by a power that streams towards the Earth from the
Sun, that is, from the spiritual Sun. For clairvoyant consciousness
every blossom is surrounded as by a cloud. This cloud breathes the
life that is exchanged between Sun and Earth. In spring and summer,
while the plants bud and blossom, something of the Sun-being draws
near and hovers round the surface of the plant. When autumn comes this
astral being withdraws and unites itself with the life of the Sun. We
may say that the plant-astrality seeks its physical plant-body on the
Earth in spring, and incarnates itself, if not IN this plant-body, at
any rate around it. In autumn it returns to the Sun, leaving behind
the seed as a pledge that it will find its way back again to its
physical body.

In similar fashion there was a kind of exchange between the physical
human beings and the Sun-beings, though the human form was as yet
primitive and elementary. There were periods in which the Sun-spirits
worked upon the Earth beneath, enveloping the human bodies with their
astrality, as today the plant-astrality envelops the plants from
spring till autumn. Thus, in speaking of those times, we may say that,
during certain periods, man's astral being was to a certain extent
united with his physical body on Earth, and that it (the astral being)
then withdrew to the Sun, to return again later. In the physical body
only the germ was left. But the Earth became ever denser and denser,
and something then happened of great importance which I would ask you
especially to bear in mind. In earlier times, immediately after the
separation of the Sun from the Earth, it was still possible for the
astral beings to unite with the physical body, when they returned
after their period of separation. Subsequently, however, owing to the
increasing influence of the Moon, the bodies down below became so
hardened that the beings who descended to reside in them found them
unfit for use. Here you have a closer description of what I described
yesterday in a more abstract way. I said the Sun-forces found it
impossible to form and shape the substances on the Earth. Speaking
more concretely, we may say that the substances dried up and the
beings no longer found suitable bodies. This resulted in the
desolation of the Earth, and the human souls desiring to return to the
Earth, at last found that the bodies were no longer suitable for them.
The souls had to leave the bodies to their fate and only the strongest
of these were able to rescue their existence through this period of
desolation. This period reached its climax while the Moon was still in
the Earth but was preparing to leave. The souls which still desired to
be human souls were no longer able to enter these bodies. At that time
only a few human beings inhabited the Earth, and it looked as though
all life would become extinct upon it. It is a fair description of
those conditions to say that at the time of the Moon's exit, very few
souls desiring union with the bodies beneath were strong enough to
unite with them, so that only very few human beings were able to
survive this evil period.

I must not describe these conditions more in detail. Let us return to
the point at which the old Moon evolution had reached an end, and the
Earth arose from the bosom of the universe. The Earth was not like old
Saturn; what now came forth contained the after effects of all that
had gone before; not physical matter alone was connected therewith,
but all the beings as well, who had worked in evolution. The
connection of the Thrones with Saturn signifies that they remained
united with the whole of evolution; they came forth once more when the
Earth issued from cosmic darkness. The Spirits of Personality
reappeared in like manner, so too the Spirits of Motion, and so on;
also human, animal, and plant forms, for all these were contained in
the Earth.

Modern physical science puts forward hypotheses which are pure fancy.
Thus with regard to the genesis of the world, the theory is advanced
that there was a vast nebular mass extending beyond Saturn. A cosmic
nebula of this kind, composed merely of mists and vapours, is a
fantastic idea; there never was such a thing. To anyone observing what
happened there with physical eyes alone, something of the kind 
a gigantic vaporous body  might indeed have been visible. But in
that mass of vapour was something which physical eyes could not have
seen  namely, all the beings connected with our evolution. The
fact that everything afterwards assumed order and form was not due
merely to rotary motion, but to the needs of the beings who were
themselves a part of the whole. We shall never acquire a reasonable
view of these things unless we rid ourselves altogether of the
accepted theories with which even our children are inoculated from
their earliest schooldays. They are taught that in ancient times only
childish ideas and views were current: These unfortunate Indians
believed in a Brahma filling the whole of universal space! An ancient
Persian believed in Ormuzd, the good God, and in his opponent Ahriman!
Not to speak of the ancient Greeks, with their host of divinities,
Zeus, Pallas Athene, and so on! We know today that all that comes from
popular imagination  beings imagined by a childish mind. And the
Gods of the old Teutons, Wotan, Thor, and so on, are mythological
figures; we have long ago got beyond this! We know now that such gods
had nothing to do with the development of the world. In the beginning
there was a vast primordial nebula in space; this began to rotate;
first it threw off one sphere from its volume; then it continued to
rotate; in time a second sphere was thrown off, then a third, and so
on. But this is only the form taken by a physical-Copernican mythology
of modern times, which will in its turn be superseded by other views.
The earlier mythologies have the advantage that they are truer than
the alter forms, which have merely sifted out the abstract and purely
material side. We must never forget how very convenient it is to
demonstrate to children the apparently simple and plausible genesis of
the solar system. We take a drop of oil, cut out a small disk of
cardboard, stick a pin through it in the direction of the equator and
another through the top, then place it on the water and let it float.
The whole thing is now brought into rotation, as they say the
‘universal nebula once rotated’. First there is flattening of the oil,
then one drop detaches itself, followed by a second and a third 
a large drop remains in the middle  and behold a miniature
planetary system! And it sounds very plausible to say: ‘As this
appears to us in miniature, so it once happened in the Universe.’
They, however, who arrange such demonstrations forget one thing which
it may be very laudable to forget under other circumstances. They
forget themselves. They forget that they themselves are the cause of
the rotation. The whole comparison would only hold good if the worthy
teacher would bring himself to say: ‘Just as I stand here and turn the
little pin, a giant professor stands out there and takes care that the
planets separate off, as we saw happen on a small scale with the drop
of oil.’ In this case the experiment might pass muster.

We know that no giant professor stands out there and turns the pin,
but that beings of every rank are there  spiritual beings who
attract the substances corresponding to themselves. Beings who
required certain definite conditions of life, attracted to themselves
suitable substances, when they withdrew to the Sun. They took with
them these substances and established their centre of activity by the
power of their spiritual forces. Other beings again severed the
Earth-substance for themselves. Spirit and nothing but spirit works
into the smallest particle of matter  into the atom if we so
choose to call it! And it is contrary to truth to ascribe to mere
matter a mode of activity. People will not understand what takes place
in the smallest division of space until they know that spirit is at
work in the greatest. To be sure, not spirit in general, as when
people say: ‘There is of course, generally speaking, spirit in matter,
an All-spirit, or primal spirit.’ Such a
designation might mean anything you like but explains nothing. We must
know the ‘Spirits’ as they really are, with their peculiarities and
various vital requirements. And now I will add something to complete
what I touched upon yesterday concerning the separation of the Sun
from the Earth-plus-Moon, and again the separation of the Moon from
the Earth. In the main this is correct, but this picture must be
supplemented.

Before the Sun could separate, the necessity arose for certain beings
to sever off for themselves special spheres of activity. These spheres
are visible to us today in the physical planets Saturn, Jupiter, and
Mars. Thus we may say that in the universal substance, in which the
Sun and Moon were contained, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars were also
contained, and that certain beings removed these spheres for
themselves. These Beings required conditions of existence which could
be fulfilled on the planets named. Then the Sun detached itself, with
the highest Beings, and Earth-plus-Moon was left. This sphere
continued its development until the Moon was ejected in the manner
described. But of the beings who went with the Sun, not all were
capable of keeping pace with solar evolution. It is difficult to find
words to describe these events in our prosaic language, and the use of
analogies is sometimes necessary. We may therefore say that when the
Sun separated from the Earth, certain beings believed themselves
capable of traveling in the Sun's escort. In reality, however, only
the highest beings could do so; the others were compelled to separate
at a later stage, and by their creation of new spheres of activity for
themselves, Venus and Mercury came into existence. We see the
separation of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars before the exit of the Sun
from the Earth; afterwards Venus and Mercury detach themselves from
the Sun, and finally the Moon leaves the Earth. Thus we have gathered
this evolution from spiritual worlds and placed it before us. We have
understood the development of our solar system in the sense that we
find various grades of spiritual beings upon the different heavenly
bodies. Having placed these facts before our soul, we can find the
answer to the question: What became of those spiritual astral beings
who wished to incarnate as men and found only hardened bodies which
they could not enter? Being insufficiently mature they could not all
unite with the Sun spirits, and it thus happened that, being compelled
to abandon the bodies on the Earth, they withdrew for a time to
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. While the Earth below was growing desolate
and produced bodies incapable of harbouring human souls we have the
fact that the souls betook themselves to planetary heights there to
await the time when human bodies would again be available for them.

Only very few, only the most robust human beings were able to receive
into themselves souls and preserve their existence during the Moon
crisis; the other souls ascended to the other heavenly bodies. Then
the Moon was ejected from the Earth. This enabled the Sun forces again
to work upon the human forms; the latter received a new impulse and
once more became soft, pliable, and plastic; and into these now
plastic human forms, the souls which had been waiting on Saturn,
Jupiter, and Mars could again enter. Whereas these souls had been
compelled to abandon the Earth, they now returned by degrees, after
the expulsion of the Moon, and peopled the rejuvenated human bodies.
Thus, following upon the exit of the Moon, we come to a period during
which new bodies appear in increasing numbers. During the Moon crisis
the number of human beings was very small. These were never without
descendants, but when the souls returned to Earth they found the
bodies unfit for use and left them to perish. By degrees the human
race died out. But when the rejuvenating process set in, the progeny
of the human beings who had outlived the Moon crisis were once more
able to receive the souls from Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. The Earth
gradually became peopled with souls. And now you can understand the
profound importance of this decisive event  the exit of the
Moon. Strictly speaking, everything was changed by it.

Let us once more consider evolution before the Moon's exit. We
referred to Man as the first born of creation, for he appeared during
Saturn. The Sun brought the animal kingdom, the Moon the vegetable
kingdom, and finally the mineral kingdom came into existence on the
Earth. But now, subsequently to the Moon's expulsion, things became
different. The Earth was saved from mummification by the exit of the
Moon. Everything then revived and was rejuvenated. What was the manner
of this rejuvenation?

The lowest of the kingdoms, the mineral, required little help. The
vegetable kingdom was in a sense withered, but could soon revive; the
animal kingdom, too, was capable of gradual progress. The human beings
were the last to recover so as to be fit to receive the souls which
descended upon them from the highest regions. Thus, through the
expulsion of the Moon, the whole process of evolution becomes
reversed. Whereas originally the human kingdom was first to come into
existence, then the animal kingdom, later the plants, and last of all
the minerals  the mineral kingdom is now the first to show the
full benefit of the rejuvenating forces; then follows the vegetable
kingdom, which develops to its highest forms; next the animal kingdom,
leaving the human kingdom last in order to evolve to the highest forms
possible to it. After the exit of the Moon, the whole sense of
evolution is reversed. The beings who wait longest before uniting
their spiritual to their physical form, were precisely those who, in
the highest sense of the word, ascended to a more spiritual sphere
after the separation of the Moon. Others who completed their spiritual
development earlier, remained behind on the Earth at an earlier stage.
After the separation of the Moon the laggards appeared first. You will
easily understand the reason. Let us consider some human soul or some
being which was unwilling to incarnate earlier owing to the prevailing
hardening of substance. In the words of our language, such a being
might deliberate as follows: ‘Shall I incarnate now or shall I wait
awhile?’ Let us suppose that the Moon was only a short while separated
and the substances still very hard. The being is in a hurry to
incarnate; it descends at all costs and puts up with the still
undeveloped bodies. As a result it is condemned to remain upon a lower
level. Another being might reflect as follows: ‘I prefer to wait
awhile in universal space, till the Earth has still further refined
and rarefied its physical being.’ This being waits for a later epoch
and, as a result, succeeds in giving form and shape to the body in
which it incarnates, and makes it a physical image of itself. Hence
all beings who incarnate too soon must remain upon subordinate stages;
others who can wait, attain the highest stages. Our higher animals
remained upon the animal stage because they were unable to wait long
enough after the exit of the Moon. They put up with such bodies as
were available. The next to descend formed their bodies up to the
level of the inferior human races, which are already extinct or are
dying out. Then followed a time when the right moment was at hand for
the union of souls and bodies, and when beings were brought forth
which were really capable of human development. Thus we see the
desolation of the Earth until the Moon's exit, followed by a revival
after that event. Thenceforward the beings who had left the Earth
because of its excessive deterioration, descend once more. This
applies not only to the beings who are exclusively concerned with the
development of higher humanity, but also to others who descend for
quite other purposes. In this case, too, it is essential for a being
to await the right moment to enter a body.

Let us go back to the Indian epoch. At that time there were men at a
high stage of development. Even as souls descending from Mars, Saturn,
and Jupiter sought suitable bodies, higher beings sought still more
highly developed bodies in order to work in the inner nature of man.
Let us take the great teachers of the ancient Indians, the holy
Rishis. They placed a part of their being at the disposal of certain
higher beings, who took up their abode in them. Other high beings,
however, said: ‘No, we shall wait awhile until there are other beings
down there who are themselves experiencing a higher development; we
prefer not to descend; we remain above until men have further matured
their soul; then we shall descend; for the present we find the inner
nature of man but little prepared for us.’ In the Persian period
certain higher beings said: ‘We can now descend into the human nature
in its present stage of development.’ The same thing happened in
Egyptian times. But He who was the highest of all the Sun Beings still
waited. From without, this Being sent down His forces upon the holy
Rishis. They looked up to Him whom they called Vishva Karman, saying:
‘Vishva Karman is beyond our sphere.’ But He waited, saying: ‘The
human soul is not so perfectly prepared that I can abide therein.’
Then came the Persian period. Zarathustra looked up to the Sun and
beheld Ahura Mazdao. And still this mighty Spirit refrained from
descending into earthly space. Then came the Egyptian period and the
civilization of the people which had waited longest. And then came the
man who had waited longest, who had developed his inner nature through
many incarnations. The Sun-Spirit looked down and beheld the inner
nature of this man who dwelt in Jesus of Nazareth and who had made his
soul ready. The highest Sun-Spirit looked down and said: ‘As the
lowest beings once descended to build up the bodies, I now descend and
take residence in the inner nature of the man who waited longest.’ To
be sure higher beings had already united themselves with men; but he
who had waited longest received into himself the Christ. At the
Baptism in the Jordan he was so advanced that the Spirit who had
hitherto sojourned in the realms of universal space, could descend
upon him and unite with his inner nature. From the time of the Baptism
by John, Christ dwelt in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, because the
individuality of Jesus of Nazareth had waited through successive
incarnations until it was ripe to receive this high Spirit. The
Christ-Spirit was always there; but after the separation of the Moon
it was necessary that all beings should first attain a certain degree
of maturity. The first to appear were the lowest beings which, as
regards their spiritual part, had been least able to wait; then came
beings of higher and higher grade. And when man appeared and his inner
nature attained ever higher development  until at last Jesus of
Nazareth was so far advanced  then he who had eyes to see could
say: ‘I saw the Spirit descend!’ And he upon whom the Spirit
descended, what could he say when the Spirit now within him gave
utterance? For that Spirit was none other than He whom the Rishis knew
as Vishva Karman. How must Vishva Karman have spoken of himself 
not in the words of the Rishis but in his own words? For he is the
great Sun-Spirit, who, as Spirit, is active in light. He would have
said: ‘I am the light of the world!’ What would Ahura Mazdao have
said, had he spoken of himself? ‘I am the light of the world!’ What
were the words spoken by the same Spirit when a human being had become
ready to receive Him into himself? He who was once in universal space,
how does He now speak from out of a human being? ‘I am the light of
the world!’

When the divine Being Himself had made His dwelling within a human
being, we hear the same utterance, which had once resounded on the
Earth from celestial choirs, now re-echoed from a human soul, as the
truest characterization of Himself by the guiding Cosmic Deity. It
resounds, as it must, from Jesus of Nazareth, in whom is the Christ: